


Yes, sir!

by TheDogPotato



Category: Whitechapel (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23227801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDogPotato/pseuds/TheDogPotato
Summary: Kent accidentally confesses his love for Chandler
Relationships: Joseph Chandler/Emerson Kent
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	Yes, sir!

Yes, sir! Two words - one affirmative and one honorific. Just the average response to an order. Not something you’d expect to carry meaning beyond that, but for Kent it did. He’d never be able to tell Chandler how he really felt, how he yearned for him – for intimacy, soft smiles and even softer words. He knew it wasn’t right - not with their difference in rank, not with Chandler’s discomfort whenever it came to relationships. He’d tried fighting it, but it had only served to make him repressed and angry so instead, he channeled all of it into those words. Yes, I respect you and will do what you ask of me was the closest he was ever going to come to saying: “I love you” and therefore “Yes, sir!” was his silent “I love you” whenever he uttered those words to Chandler.

It was hard not to love him on days like this. They’d just made an arrest, Kent trailing behind with Miles and Chandler in the lead. The man had tried to put up a fight, but Chandler had impressively detained him with what looked like little to no effort leaving Kent amazed. Chandler was in great spirits after the successful arrest. Even if everything wasn’t sorted yet, things were looking good, and Kent found himself watching him periodically, as he energetically went about getting the last things done to finish up the case.

Seeing him happy like this warmed Kent’s heart, and Kent rejoiced in the fact that the successful arrests were more frequent now, and he got to enjoy this feeling, even if it sometimes threatened to bubble over and left him grinning at a report on his computer. He’d never been subtle. There was nothing he could do about that, and he’d accepted that long ago, as long as Chandler didn’t find out.

The next time he glanced up at Chandler, he was heading for his desk.

“Kent?”

“Sir?”

“Will you write up a report of the evidence from the case?”

Given the subject matter, his demeanour was serious, but he couldn’t keep from smiling, knowing they had enough evidence to take this case to court.

Seeing Chandler giddy like this overwhelmed Kent with love, and he tried to keep himself from grinning wide in response to being asked to write up a partial report for the CPS.

 _Yes, sir!_ That was all he had to say, followed by a smile and immediate action. His silent and unknown declaration of love.

The smile broke out across his lips, before he began to speak.

“I love you.” The words were so familiar and so right that it took Kent a split second to realise that they were _wrong._

Chandler’s smile faded, and his eyebrows creased in confusion.

Kent’s heart dropped. His mouth opened and closed a few times, before he could get any words out.

“Um, I-I’d love to,” he stammered, trying to recover. “I’d, uh, yes sir, yes.”

He could feel the blush not as much creeping as running up his neck and across his face, and he nervously glanced about to see if anyone had noticed. He caught Mansell’s eye. He was staring open-mouthed at the scene unfolding which didn’t help Kent, as he tried to salvage the situation.

“I’ll-I’ll get right to it!” Kent announced as he stood up a little too fast causing the chair to topple over. He turned around to catch it, but didn’t manage in time, and it landed on the floor with a loud bang.

Several other people were staring in his direction now, and he kept his eyes on the floor in the hopes of obscuring the blush on his face.

“Sorry!” He said a little too loud and picked up the chair again. He kept his head down, not daring to look at Chandler, as he turned back around. Chandler still hadn’t said a thing, leaving Kent to flail about and worsen the situation for himself. He had to get out before he found a new way to embarrass himself.

“Just a sec!” It was vague and not the best way to excuse himself, but it was all he could do. He fled the incident room and made his way to a bathroom at the other end of the station. He tried not to rush too much as to not draw attention to himself and his burning face.

No one was in the bathroom when Kent entered and he allowed himself to loudly curse.

“Fuck!” He busted the door open to a stall. “Fuckfuckfuck.”

He’d managed this crush professionally for years. How had he managed to screw up that bad and that publicly?

Never mind the embarrassment. Well no, that part was pretty bad too, but more importantly than that, he didn’t want to mess up anything between him and Chandler, and he’d just done that big time.

The door to the bathroom opened and he froze. Had anyone followed him there from the incident room?

He sighed in relief when he realized it was just someone who’d come in to use the bathroom. He wasn’t ready to face anyone yet after that.

What if it had been Chandler? He dreaded the conversation they’d surely have. Being reprimanded by Chandler. It was a horrible feeling.

But what if it _had_ been Chandler? Some part of him couldn’t help but entertain a fantasy where Chandler had seen him flustered after the confession and had followed him to reassure him that things were okay. That he felt the same w-

No. Kent shook his head. He felt dumb entertaining thoughts like that.

He’d just told his boss he loved him and now he was hiding in a bathroom from embarrassment like a school kid, and this was his line of thought? Pathetic.

As much as he hated it, he had to go back. Staying away and not doing what Chandler had asked him to do would only make things worse. He willed himself to be professional and headed out of the bathroom, but not before checking that his face had returned to its normal colour, as he washed his hands that had gotten clammy from his anxious sweating.

He sighed. What a mess he was.

The long walk back to the incident room didn’t do anything to lessen his anxiety. He stopped just around the corner before reaching the incident room and drew in a big breath. A uniform walking past glanced at him quickly, just being observant of his surroundings, but the brief attention already had Kent fearing that word had gotten around.

He bowed his head and opened the door to the incident room.

Things were busy as they always were when trying to tie up a case, and Kent was able to slip into the room without anyone giving him a second glance.

He still felt like shit about the whole thing, and he couldn’t help but glance about still feeling paranoid that people were staring at him, but people were really just tending to their own business. At least that meant that he could do the same and get out of there as quick as possible and try to forget about the embarrassing moment, even though he knew he’d never do that. His mind was sure to remind him of it at odd times.

He sat down to do the thing that had started this mess. A simple task. A simple yes, sir. That was all that should’ve happened.

He glanced up to see if Chandler was in his office, but he wasn’t. Good. That was good. Just focus on the task at hand. He was literally the only one making this a big deal for now it seemed.

The only indication throughout the workday that it had been a thing came when Kent went up to get a cup of tea.

Mansell walked up beside him. Kent briefly glanced over at him to see who it was and then immediately turned away hoping he could just ignore whatever he was going to say. He’d seen the whole thing, Kent knew, and he was already gritting his teeth expecting Mansell’s taunts.

“Hey mate, are you ok?” Mansell asked and Kent looked up at him in surprise. How down must he be looking if that was Mansell’s response to the whole thing.

Kent laughed nervously. “Why wouldn’t I be?” He tried to deflect it. If Mansell had any sense or care, he’d realise that Kent didn’t want to talk about it.

“I saw what happened. Quite the slip up.”

“Yeah, I know!” Kent hissed. He didn’t need the reminder.

Mansell raised his eyebrows. “Yeah well, I thought you must feel pretty bad about it, so…”

“No offence, but I really don’t want to talk about it, Mansell,” Kent said, before grabbing his cup and pushing past him.

He knew Mansell meant well. He could’ve just as easily teased him about it. Hopefully he understood why he’d walked off like that, but if not, Kent would have to apologise tomorrow. He didn’t have the energy to do so now.

The cup of tea saw him through with the last of his assignment, and he was happy that he could just sent it to Chandler in a mail, so he didn’t have to see him personally one on one. Not yet. 

With no more to do and no time to start something new, Kent spent the last of his shift cleaning his desk. It was only about 15 minutes, but it felt like an eternity. As his colleagues stopped having things to do themselves, he began to notice their glances his way.

Of course the spectacle hadn’t gone unnoticed. It was uncomfortable to think of what they silently thought, but Kent did appreciate none of them bringing it up none the less.

When the shift was finally over, he grabbed his coat and his helmet and headed outside, but as soon as he headed towards his Vespa, he saw Chandler standing close by speaking with one of the uniforms.

Kent briefly considered turning around and going back inside, but then he saw Chandler look up towards him and give him a nod. Great, he’d seen him. Kent nodded back briefly, bowed his head, and walked towards his Vespa.

Nothing wrong with him just driving home. He was off work after all. And Chandler was already engaged in conversation, so it wasn’t impolite to not say anything. But before he could get ready, he saw Chandler urgently say his goodbyes to the man he was speaking to and start to make his way towards Kent.

“Fuck,” Kent said under his breath.

“Kent!” Chandler said in a similar urgent manner as he walked his way, but Kent had already paused in the middle of putting on his helmet. He put it on the seat of the Vespa instead.

He’d really hoped he could’ve postponed this talk to another day.

Kent sighed and turned around to meet with Chandler face to face. Chandler was looking serious and Kent immediately heard himself apologise:

“I’m sorry about the slip up earlier, sir. That wasn’t appropriate to say in a professional setting. I didn’t mean it. I was lost in my own thoughts. I’m sorry for being unprofessional!”

He hoped Chandler hadn’t noticed his obvious crush and that that was a convincing apology.

He noticed Chandler looking worried which didn’t bode well.

“You didn’t mean it?” He asked.

“No, sir! I promise!” Kent insisted. Please believe me, sir, was all he could think.

Chandler looked even more unhappy. Had he seen through his lie? Was Kent just digging his own grave deeper by lying to him?

Chandler furrowed his brow and looked lost in thought a bit before speaking. “Alright, well,” he paused seemingly not knowing how to start and Kent just stood there nervous of what was to come. “I’ve noticed Mansell’s and Riley’s jokes, you know, and I wasn’t really sure what to think of it. I’m not as tightknit with them as you are, so I didn’t know if it was some sort of in-joke I didn’t understand, but you can see how that slip-of-the-tongue earlier seemed in line with that.”

Kent cringed and inwardly cursed at Mansell and Riley. He tried to sound like he was taking it light as he responded:

“It’s a teacher’s pet kinda thing, you know.” He had to close his eyes, not being able to meet Chandler’s eyes after that comment. “Nothing to worry about!” He kept up his cheery voice.

“Oh, it’s not that I was worried, Kent, don’t think that. I just wanted to clear the air,” Chandler said, though he still had an air of worry about him. He looked almost disappointed.

He knew. Kent could feel his stomach turning in knots. He knew the truth, and he was disappointed in Kent for lying to his face.

“I just want to make sure that you’re okay, and you don’t feel like you have to distance yourself from me from a silly mishap like that.”

Oh no and he was being kind about it too.

“Thank you, sir. That’s kind of you to say. I won’t!” Kent said.

He felt guilty. If Chandler not only knew about his crush, but now knew that he would lie so blatantly to his face. Kent couldn’t take that. Maybe he didn’t know, though. And if he didn’t Kent was about to make everything worse, but he couldn’t keep lying to Chandler. Not when he’d just addressed it so directly.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Kent said.

“No, Kent, you really don’t have to apologise again. It’s okay,” Chandler

“No, I’m sorry for lying.”

“Lying?” Chandler’s brow furrowed again.

“Mansell and Riley say those things because it’s true. The slip-up was more of an unconscious reveal than anything, but I _am_ sorry. And I didn’t mean to say it. I promise I won’t be unprofessional like that again.”

Chandler laughed. Nervously Kent would guess. He couldn’t tell. His eyes were firmly on the ground.

“Oh, thank goodness.” Chandler said.

Now it was Kent’s turn to look puzzled.

“Sir?”

“I thought that was the case, but I didn’t know for sure, but then today. I thought now might be a good time to address it, but then thinking I had cornered you to talk about such a topic matter when you felt uncomfortable about it. Well, I felt quite unprofessional myself.”

Kent was looking at Chandler now and throughout his explanation, there it was again. That beautiful smile breaking out across his face.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’m not sure what’s going on,” Kent said feeling utterly lost.

“That wasn’t a lie again, just now, was it?” Chandler looked almost mortified at the thought.

“What, no,” Kent responded automatically seeing Chandler react like that.

Chandler laughed again and this time Kent could tell it was in relief.

“I’ve just been waiting for a time where I was absolutely sure, which I rarely am in situations like this, but I hoped- I hoped I was right, so I could tell you I feel the same way.”

Kent’s jaw dropped open. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Chandler _liked_ him?

“ _You’ve_ been waiting?!” How long had they both looked at the other from away and hoping for something they weren’t sure or didn’t think could be real.

“Yes, I hope it’s not too forward to tell you this.”

Now it was Kent’s turn to laugh. It was only just starting to sink in that this was real. That his dumb fantasies apparently weren’t as dumb as he’d thought.

“Of course not. I’m just surprised to say the least,” he smiled widely at Chandler who looked relieved.

“I’m sorry things went as awkward as they did,” Chandler said.

“I think I’m mostly the one to blame in that regard,” Kent said. If only he hadn’t panicked at first, Chandler would’ve reassured him all was well and that he liked him too, same as in his thoughts, but no, he had to apologize in a panic and lie about his feelings making Chandler feel awkward as well.

“Nevertheless I hope it might go better if we went somewhere for a drink.”

“Are you- are you asking me out on a date?” Was Kent’s immediate reaction. It still felt kinda dangerous asking _Chandler_ that. A cautious part of him was telling him to watch out, what if it isn’t real.

“Yes, that is of course if you want to?” Chandler looked somewhere between nervous and hopeful.

It was real, and Kent’s heart soared. He looked up at Chandler with a cheeky smile: “Yes, sir!” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! :D


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